The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a mental health crisis across the country and world. Millions of Americans sought mental health treatment in the past few years, and as the world moved towards Telehealth, many people turned to BetterHelp: a platform that provides virtual mental health care.
But what those Americans did not know is that while they received treatment or therapy,
BetterHelp was selling customer data to the highest bidder.Sign now to tell the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC): it is time to regulate virtual healthcare!Researchers described the sale as a "tasting menu for buying people's mental health data," with packaged lists of data ranging from "Consumers With Clinical Depression in the United States" to ones that identified users with attention deficiencies or bladder complications.
Clearly, BetterHelp does not care about the well-being of its users, and sees human beings simply as consumers whose data can be sold for profit.
In the real world, much of this would be a HIPAA violation. But because BetterHelp is a virtual healthcare platform,
many of its for-profit actions are not yet regulated by the FTC. Clearly, we are living in a digital era, and our regulatory agencies must act quickly to set rules for companies that profit off of virtual healthcare services.
The Federal Trade Commission must implement stricter laws for virtual healthcare now! Sign the petition if you agree!